by MarianBeaman | Mar 12, 2014 | Family / Nostalgia, Lists, Mennonite Lore, Nostalgia, Reflection, Uncategorized
10 ways I’m like (or unlike) my Grandma Longenecker 1. She started fancy and turned plain. I reversed the cycle, plain to fancy. 2. She always wore black laced-up shoes with heels to do housework. For me, it’s tennis shoes in winter and sandals in the summer. No...
by MarianBeaman | Mar 5, 2014 | Coming of Age, Family / Nostalgia, Memory, Mennonite Lore, Nostalgia, Reflection, Uncategorized
Looking at indistinct footage from 16 millimeter home movies of the 1950s has invited me to examine from a distance the much younger, and in many ways different, version of myself. Not surprisingly, I appear in the “mothering” mode in many of the shots. I...
by MarianBeaman | Mar 1, 2014 | Coming of Age, Conflict, Family / Nostalgia, Mennonite Lore, Neighborhood / Environment, Nostalgia, Reflection, Uncategorized
The wild, permissive Rentzels with a red porch light live next door to our family, the Mennonite Longeneckers, one of several plain families that live on Anchor Road. In their parlor, the Rentzel’s old Emerson black & white TV has introduced me to the...
by MarianBeaman | Feb 26, 2014 | Coming of Age, Conflict, Education, Literature, meditation, Quotations, Reflection, Uncategorized
Tucked under the signature of my Florida driver’s license are two words in blood-red that indicate that I am an organ donor. This means that if I were in a fatal crash, my kidneys, liver, lungs, corneas—even my heart could be harvested for transplantation. Harvested...
by MarianBeaman | Feb 15, 2014 | Coming of Age, Family / Nostalgia, Mennonite History, Mennonite Lore, Nostalgia, Reflection, Uncategorized
“Your DNA has a story. It’s time to discover it,” invites an ad on the back cover of the February 10, 2014 issue of The New Yorker. “It’s easier than ever to discover your ethnic heritage – and possibly find new cousins along the way,” the advertisement...
by MarianBeaman | Feb 12, 2014 | Gratitude, Literature, Quotations, Reflection, Uncategorized
Think of February as God’s special gift of time sandwiched between all the hubbub of past holidays and the upcoming arrival of a busy spring. To me, February is the ideal month to regroup . . . to review where I’ve been and to rethink where I’m going. I have found it...
